The Lost Adventures: The Legend Of Silver Valley
by rosita93
Summary: Mysteries, liars, legends, gangsters, cursed forests, monsters, and a huge adventure. The Doctor and Donna are in for a wild ride, literally, as they investigate strange occurencies, a distress signal, and a secret valley, together with a mysterious girl.
1. Chapter 1: Mist

**I don't own Doctor Who, never have, never will.**

**Oh, and please leave a review if you feel like commenting on anything, writing, mistakes or just the plot. All reviews are much appreciated.**

**Thank you, enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Mist

"Where are we?" Donna Noble asked as she watched the Doctor strode around in a small circle, looking interestedly around at their surroundings.

"I think" The Doctor began, sniffing the air with a bemused look "we've landed in the 1970s."

Donna frowned, still finding the Doctor ability to tell which time-period they were currently finding themselves in by sniffing the air both fascinating and creepy at the same time. She did not think she would ever get used to the Doctor's special talents.

"Okay, so we're in the 70s, but where on earth are we?" asked Donna, looking expectantly at the Doctor, who just shrugged, putting his hands in his trouser pockets causally.

"Dunno" he said, and turning his back to Donna he added "In a forest, apparently."

"Well, I can see that." said Donna, annoyed at the Doctor's lack of providing her with proper information, but before she could utter a sarcastic comment about the Doctor's inability to steer the TARDIS, the Doctor turned to back to Donna.

"I got a distress signal, latched on to it and here we are." The Doctor said, taking another curious look at their surroundings.

"You don't know who sent it?" Donna asked, remembering the last time the Doctor had responded to a cry for help, they had ended up running from flesh eating shadows in a huge library, and then Donna had ended up trapped inside a dream world.

"Haven't got clue." Said the Doctor, scratching the back of his head. Donna sighed and took in their damp and misty surroundings. Huge pine trees surrounded them, and that was the only thing Donna could see because of the thick mist. Donna glanced upwards to look at the sky, but it too was obscured by mist, she could not even make out the treetops.

"Is it just me or is this fog getting thicker?" Donna asked wearily, and she felt cold ripple through her spine.

"Well observed, Donna." The Doctor said his tone low and serious. Donna suddenly felt very cold and she shivered involuntarily. The Doctor knelt down, picked up a handful of dirt, and sniffed it; looking puzzled, he carefully planted the tip of his tongue on the soil. Donna winced. Why did always have to lick things?

"Just as I thought!" the Doctor exclaimed, letting the soil spill between his fingers while rising back to his feet. "Normal, earth soil, well, normal in certain areas in North America, or more precisely, Sierra Nevada."

"We're in Nevada." Donna said, "But we're in the middle of nowhere, who could possibly be sending a distress signal from out here? There's nothing but..." she gestured to the trees"trees out here."

"Well, then, that's what we need to find out isn't it?" the Doctor inquired, suddenly grinning.

"You mean" Donna was appalled "we're going in there?" she gestured to the trees again. "But we could get lost in there!"

"Don't worry Donna, we 're not going in _there_ because we're already in here, and we can't get lost in the forest because we don't know our exact position, so we're technically already lost, and you can't really get lost once you're already lost, now could you?"Donna did not feel very assured by this and the Doctor must have sensed it because he hastily added"Besides, the TARDIS and I are linked telepathically, finding my way back to her in a foggy forest shouldn't be much of a problem."

"Fine, but if I'm going hiking I'm going to have to change shoes first." Donna said firmly.

"Why, what's wrong with the ones your wearing?" the Doctor asked, looking slightly taken aback.

"These shoes are made for running" Donna pointed at her pair of grey ADIDAS," not for muddy forest floors, my feet will get all wet, I'm going to get a pair of hiking boots."

Donna turned and stumped towards the TARDIS, but stopped short after a couple of steps" Oh my god!"

"What is it, Donna?" The Doctor asked from behind her.

"Doctor" Donna whispered, staring ahead, eyes wide, "I think you might want to look at this."

"Look at what?" the doctor asked, appeared at her side, "I don't see anything."

Donna did not turn to look at him, but continued to stare straight ahead, as she asked tentively "Doctor, where's the TARDIS?"

"That" the Doctor said" is very good question."

Donna turned her head slowly and glanced at the Doctor. He looked mortified, surprised and shocked at the same time; his eyes were wide as he stared fixedly at the spot where the TARDIS had previously been. Now, however there were not even any marks on the ground indicating that the Police box-shaped TARDIS had ever landed there.

"The TARDIS is gone," Donna said, feeling slight panic rise within her chest. "How can the TARDIS be gone? Doctor, how?"

He snapped out of his reverie and muttered" No idea. I have bad feeling about this, a very bad feeling."

"But where's the TARDIS now? I mean, you said you and the TARDIS were linked, can't you just go and find it?" Donna asked, sounding hopeful.

"That's just it, my senses tells me she's right in front of us." The Doctor said quietly.

"But how can that be? It's not in front of us, is it?" said Donna "Maybe it's just invisible or something?"

"First of all, the TARDIS is not an _it_, but a _she_." The Doctor said, annoyingly, but continued in more calm and polite manner " And the TARDIS can't become invisible, well, at least not by herself. No, there's something else going on here."

He took a few steps forward, reached out a hand as though to touch an invisible TARDIS, sighed and let his hand drop by his side. " As expected, noting there, not even a trace of indication as what might have happen to her."

Donna shivered, and suddenly realized their predicament, and how uncomfortable the mere thought of it made her feel. "So, we're trapped here, if we can't find the TARDIS we'll be trapped in here forever!" She felt panic rise within her, her blood starting to run cold, and she thought she heard a branch snap from somewhere behind her. She whipped around, her hair flipping wildly, and she heard the Doctor guffawed as some of her red locks hit him in the face.

"What was that?" She shrieked.

"What was what?" the doctor asked wearily.

Donna ignored him and squinted into the fog, her senses spiked up and sharp, she could see nothing through the thick, white ghostly fog. Before she could stop them images of fierce creatures with dagger sized claws, and razor sharp teeth shot into her mind like bullets, creatures jumping out of the fog, murderous, huge and hairy, lunging at her.

Donna let out a high-pitched scream as she felt something touch her shoulder; she whirled around in panic and began to beat thoughtlessly at whatever was attacking her.

"Ouch, ugh, stop it! Stop it! It's just me!" The doctor yelled, holding up his hands protectively in front of his face. Donna retracted her balled fists at once, shocked at her violent reaction, and how she had panicked when the Doctor's hand had touched her shoulder.

"Oh, Doctor I'm so sorry, I..I" She stammered in her haste to apologize " I didn't know it was you, I thought I was being attacked."

"It's alright, Donna, I'm okay. " The Doctor said calmly, he then looked suddenly alarmed and gripped both of Donna's shoulders carefully. "Donna, are you alright? You're shaking."

Donna had not realized it, but now that the Doctor said it, Donna felt herself shaking, and breathing heavily. The Doctor's grip tightened around her shoulders, and his eyes looked straight into hers.

"Donna, are you alright?" he asked slowly, as though speaking to a child who had difficulties understanding, and Donna felt like a child too, a lost and frightened child.

"D…Do..Doctor" She stuttered in a whisper"I want to get out of here."

"So do I." said the Doctor, his grip on her shoulder loosening.

"I can help you with that."

Donna jumped, startled, gripping the Doctor's right arm reflexively as she went. She looked at the newcomer and was shocked to see a teenage girl stand before them. She was slim, a fact that was easy to spot as she was wearing nothing but a thin white dress, reacing just above her knees. Her hair was sleek and shoulder length, thick and dark brown by the looks of it. She would appear almost ghostly, except for the fact that her skin seemed rather tanned.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you." The girl said, stroking a lock of thick dark brown hair away from her eyes, and sending Donna and the Doctor an apologetic smile.

"It's alright." The Doctor grinned, "Hello there, I'm the Doctor, and this is Donna."

"You're lost, aren't you?" The girl said airily in an American accent, more a statement than a question.

The Doctor looked taken aback by the girl's sudden directness, and the smirk that followed in the statement's wake.

"Well," The doctor hesitated, "just a bit, yeah."

The girl nodded and grinned, showing a row of pearly white teeth. "Good thing I found you, I might be the only one able to guide you out of here, these woods are like a maze, and not everybody comes out of here, but not many people come on here in first place."

"I can't think why." Donna muttered sarcastically.

The girl laughed, "The few people that actually come in here only come because they hope of catching the king of the mustangs, but that can't be why you're in here, seeing as you don't have any horses or equipment with you, unless you're one of those who believe they can catch a wild horse with their bare hands."

"Em, no, we're not here to catch horses." The Doctor said bemusedly and grinned sheepishly.

"Then, why you're in here?" the girl asked, looking just a tad suspicious, but the smile remained plastered upon her young face.

"We…sort of… stumbled in here by accident." The Doctor answered reminiscently, sparing a quick glance at Donna before turning back to the teenager with another sheepish grin. "So, you said you can guide us out of here?"

"Yes I can, "the girl said proudly, looking way too cheerful for someone wandering about alone in a misty forest, Donna thought. She could not understand how anyone could feel cheerful in a place like this, then again, Donna reminded herself, the girl had said that she was probably the only one who could guide anyone out of the forest, and one tend to feel secure when knowing your way around.

"Just follow me and you'll get safely out of here." The girl said cheerily, turning around to leave. "Oh, and one more thing." She said, turning her head to look them" I am Amber, by the way. "

* * *

**Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Don't forget to leave a review, It will only take about a minute of you life, you know. Unless you're writing a very long one, which of course will be much appreciated, all reviews are. ;)**


	2. Chapter 2: the Local legend

**I don't own Doctor who, no matter how much I wish.**

**Here's chapter two, enjoy. Oh, and don't forget to leave those wonderfully appreciated reviews.**

* * *

Chapter two

Local legends

Amber had uncounted a number of strange and paranormal things in her life, but never before had she met anyone quite as unusual as the spiky-haired man in the pinstriped suit who strode around like he owned the whole world, words spilling out of his mouth like a waterfall out of a cracked dam wall. Still, the thing which intrigued Amber about this strange man was neither his seemingly never ending rambling, or the fact that he insisted she call him The Doctor, it was his very peculiar scent. He did not smell like anything Amber had ever smelt before, inhuman, and while Amber new every human smelt different, their scent always possessed certain traits, common in every human scent, traits that distinguished the scent belonged to a human. This man's scent however, possessed none of those traits, and Amber felt a strong need to find out why. She wondered if normal humans could detect the man's sweet scent.

**XXXXXXXXX**

As Amber led the redhead and the weird scented man out of the forest, she had asked about the Doctor's name, he had answered that his name was simply the doctor, and when she had asked what kind of doctor he had answered "a bit of everything, really." Amber had detected a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

Her curiosity awoken she led the two strangers through the fog, a friendly smile on her face and her spirits high, although keeping her feelings positive was beginning to get more and more difficult because of the scared and nervous vibes the redhead was releasing.

"How do you manage to stay so...happy in here?" redhead Donna asked a bit exasperated, after ten minutes of walking through the murky forest. "I feel like I'm falling into the pit of depression."

"Oh, don't worry Donna," The Doctor reassured his wife? Friend?" You can't possibly feel anything like you do in The Pit of Depression; I fell into that once, compared to what you feel down there grief and despair are blissful."

While wondering what the hell The Pit of Depression was, and where it could possibly be, Amber responded to Donna's question. "Well, I could tell you now, but you'd probably feel even worse. I'll explain when we get out of here. But don't worry; it's not your fault you're feeling this way."

Amber turned her head and glanced at Donna and the Doctor. Donna looked confused, and a tad annoyed, the Doctor on the other hand, looked interested, his eyes gleaming. Amber could almost feel his curiosity arousing. Her cryptic answer seemed to have served its purpose; Amber knew this would definitely make the strange Doctor stick around for a while. She was definitely going to feed the two strangers the story of the forest.

They had walked for just forty-five minutes when they reached the end of the forest, beyond which lay a much dryer and sand-covered landscape, and a little less than an hour when they had finally reached civilisation.

Amber sat facing a smiling Doctor and a very relieved looking Donna across a table in an old inn. The interior of the inn reminded Amber of a cabin, wooden walls decorated with pictures of cowboys on horseback, mustangs (horses, not cars) and various oxen and herds of cattle. There was a counter and next to that a stair case, undoubtedly leading up to the bedrooms.

The inn was empty except for the owner who was busy cleaning the counter, and a burly man in a brown leather jacket, whose face was shadowed by large grey Stetson hat.

"So, you had something you wanted to explain?" the Doctor asked casually, though Amber could see a flicker of excitement in his deep brown eyes.

"Well..." Amber started, leaning over the table so her face came closer to the Doctor and Donna," the thing is; that forest you stumbled into isn't exactly what you would call... normal."

She looked at Donna "You felt scared and depressed, and probably a variety of negative emotions, and you probably had awful thoughts as well, yeah?"

Donna nodded slowly" I felt so small and vulnerable, like I was going to be attacked every second."

"That's not your fault Donna; the bravest and toughest of men have gone into that forest and come out crying for their moms. It is the forest. Nobody knows why, or how, but it is doing something to you. It makes you feel those awful things, messes with your head."

Donna shivered; the Doctor looked curious, his eyes positively sparkling with interest, and he leaned a bit closer to Amber.

"And exactly how long has the forest been like that?" asked the Doctor calmly. Amber was surprised he sounded so calm when she could practically feel the excitement running through his body.

Amber let herself fall back against the back of her chair, "about five years." The Doctor fell back in his chair, his brow creasing, as though contemplating a very difficult math problem.

"When I think about, it started right around the time when people started seeing _him_."

The Doctor perked up at once, "Him?"

Amber grinned, "Old Silver, although most people call him Phantom, but personally I think Phantom is a bit cliché, so I just call him Silver. Anyway, he is the reason people go into the woods, the one they're all hoping to catch by going in there, the king of the mustangs." Amber leaned across the table again, and for the pleasure of dramatic effect, whispered, "The silver stallion."

"What do you mean silver?" Donna asked, confused.

"I mean a horse that actually gleams like silver, or so the people claiming to have seen him say, anyway." Amber shrugged.

Donna's blue-brown eyes narrowed "but horses can't really shine like silver, can they? I haven't seen many horses in my life but even I know they can't shine like my mother's favourite earrings."

"Exactly, that's why he's so special, there's no other horse like him on the planet, he's the one with a truly remarkable colour, that's why half the town want to catch him." Said Amber in an excited whisper, "and they would have done already, if it weren't for that forest stopping them, because Silver isn't really in the forest itself, see, but in what the forest surrounds. The silver Valley. That's what the locals call it anyway, because of the silver stallion. The valley doesn't really have an official name yet."

Amber glanced absently out one of the two windows "But so far, no one has ever been able to get into the valley because they all get lost in the forest. But I found a way round it, a way to avoid being affected by the woods."

She looked back at the Doctor and Donna. The Doctor, who had been sitting relaxed in his chair while listening intently to Amber, now beamed.

"You wonderful human beings, you find your way around everything, a solution to every problem."

Amber could not help but smirk inwardly at the word human. She supposed she was cheating a bit when solving problems.

"Still, even I haven't been able to find a way into the valley." She said with a shrug.

"But still you seem to know your way around the forest." The Doctor inquired, "You got us out of there pretty easily. You must know the forest really well."

The last sentence came out as a statement, though causally and friendly.

"Yeah, I suppose I do, must be because I manage to keep my feelings positive so I don't get all freaked out by my own shadow in there."

"If you actually see you own shadow in there." The Doctor murmured absently and looked out the same window Amber had been looking out earlier." That fog doesn't let much sunlight through, does it?"

He turned his head and looked Amber straight in the eyes for second, and Amber felt a shiver crawling up her spine at the intensity of the Doctor's brief gaze. Amber noticed it was something very unsettling about the man's eyes, they seemed...old, no, ancient somehow, but there was something more, something she could not quite pinpoint.

"So how come _you_ are able to navigate through it so well?"

Amber was prepared for the Doctor's question, but she could not come up with any proper, believable and satisfying answer, and since telling the truth was completely out of the question (not that the truth was very believable) she quickly decided to answer cryptically.

"That, Doctor, is for me to know, and for you to find out." Amber smirked at her own words. That sounded like straight out of a movie, she concluded. She then grinned sheepishly at the Doctor.

"Ah, don't you worry," the Doctor grinned back at her, "I will."

"Okay, that's it!" yelled Donna, suddenly. The Doctor almost fell out his chair, clearly unprepared for the loud noise right beside him.

"While you two have been busy playing riddle, I have noticed that it is getting darker, and I've had a very traumatic experience today and need to rest. So if you don't mind, I'll go and rent a room." Donna stood up and made her way toward the counter when she suddenly turned back and looked questioningly at the Doctor.

"I don't suppose you have any money, do you?" Donna asked the Doctor.

The Doctor frowned, then looked sheepish, "oh, right, money..."

"You do have money, don't you?" Donna said rather loudly, looking annoyed at the Doctor. When the Doctor failed to answer, Donna sighed. "I suppose you didn't count on us having to sleep at a motel tonight. But I won't forgive you so easily next time."

Why would two tourists not have any money on them, Amber suddenly wondered, assuming they both were tourists since they clearly could not be from around anywhere nearby, judging by the accents. Moreover, why, if they were tourists, would they not have counted on staying in a motel?

"So I take it you need a place to stay that won't cost you money?" Amber butted in before Donna could form another word.

"Yes, we do." Donna answered the added vehemently "Since spaceman here is broke."

The Doctor smiled apologetically.

"Well, I think I know just the right place," said Amber with a mischievous grin and rose from her chair. "And it definitely won't cost you any money."

"Excellent!" The Doctor jumped to his feet, "So, madam, where will Donna and I be spending the night?"

"Follow me, all show you the way there, and it so conveniently happens, that I'll be spending the night there myself."

"That's great, isn't it Donna? It is always great to have someone you know around when sleeping in strange places. Not that the place you're spending the night at is strange..." The doctor gave Amber a quick apologetic look. "because I'm sure it's perfectly normal. I'm not saying I don't get on well with the owners of said strange places, because I always get on well with people, except for those who are trying to sacrifice me to their volcano god, or sand god, or those trying to eat me, or kill in my sleep with a toy monkey, or steal my bananas, or...."

Donna etched a couple of steps away from the Doctor as he continued so sum up all those people he did not get on with, the speed of his rambling increasing until it became practically impossible to distinguish anything he was saying.

Amber sneaked up beside Donna and leaned her head closer to Donna' s ear and asked quietly "Is he always like this?"

Donna nodded sadly.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and if you have anything you'd like to comment on, don't be afraid t leave a review, I'm always very interested in what you have to say about my story, and if you think my story worthy to continue.**


End file.
